Lucky Luciano

Charles "Lucky" Luciano (24 November 1897-26 January 1962), born Salvatore Lucania, was the father of the American Mafia and the founder of the Commission, the governing body of Italian-American organized crime. He is often considered to be the first boss of the Genovese crime family.

Biography
Salvatore Lucania was born in Lercara Friddi, Sicily, Italy on 24 November 1897, and his family emigrated to the United States in 1907 when he was just nine. He worked as a hat delivery boy, but he later became a gambler and a member of a street gang in the Five Points section of New York City. Luciano, working as a pimp, became friends with Meyer Lansky and began a partnership in crime. In 1920, Joe Masseria recruited Luciano into his family, and Luciano also worked for gambler Arnold Rothstein, getting involved in the bootlegging business alongside him. By 1925, Luciano was sitting on top of the largest bootlegging operation in the USA, importing Scotch from Scotland, rum from the Caribbean, and whiskey from Canada. In 1929, he was nearly killed by some of Salvatore Maranzano's police henchmen when he was stabbed and beaten in Staten Island, leaving him with notable scars. Luciano decided to switch allegiance to Maranzano in 1931 when he went to war with Masseria, and Luciano had Masseria killed first, later having Maranzano murdered when Maranzano attempted to betray him. Luciano decided to democratize the American Mafia by forming The Commission, ensuring that there was no self-proclaimed "boss of all bosses". Luciano became the first boss of the Genovese crime family, and he was a powerful criminal. Even when he was arrested and sentenced to 30 years in prison for prostitution in 1934, he was allowed to live in exile in Italy in exchange for protecting New York harbor from "German saboteurs" during World War II, and he died in Naples in 1962 at the age of 64.